FTSE 100 listed oil majors have not presented investors with anything positive thus far in 2013; however those who are willing to bet on further losses on our three stocks being analysed here will certainly have been rewarded.

BG Group is interesting as it could be about to break its trend lower, analysts at Trading Central have said that "as long as 995 is not broken down, we favour an upmove with 1190 and then 1350 as next targets. The daily technical indicators are reversing up and are advocating for a technical rebound."

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Our analysis is a little more sketchy as we note the short-term trading horizon is decidedly uncertain for BG Group; the 2-6 week timeframe holds 7 bullish to 6 bearish indicators all contained between support at 1,067.00 and resistance at 1,306.00.

The short term bearish indicators are made up of the Short-term KST, Price Crosses Moving Average (21-day), the Williams %R, Momentum, MACD and a bearish Engulfing Line.

BP plc (LON:BP) : An upmove is seen

BP shares are meanwhile forecast to head higher by Trading Central: "As long as 453 is not broken down, we favour an upmove with 482 and then 495 as next targets."

However, we would argue that the daily technical indicators are mixed and are calling for caution.

We note the short term indicators for the 2-6 week range are overwhelmingly tipped to the negative side for the BP share price.

There are 2 bullish signals to the 10 bearish indicators.

Support is seen at 432.40 and resistance lies at 461.75.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (LON:RDSA) : Bearish in the short term

Royal Dutch Shell stock is not faring much better than sector peer BP in the short term.

Indicators point to down-moves by a ratio of 1 bullish short term indicator to 11 bearish indicators.

The lone bullish indicator is a short term Momentum: For bearish events, downside momentum has just built up with the latest price now trading lower than the price 10 bars ago. Momentum measures the velocity of price changes.

Trading Central meanwhile say Shell is set to fall yet lower as long as 27 is not broken up, we favour a down move with 24.8 and then 24.4 as next targets.

"The daily technical indicators are reversing down and are advocating for a consolidation," say Trading Central.

On the continent we see the French economy has suffered from manufacturers slashing thousands of jobs as President Hollande grapples with an economy that has barely grown over the last year.

With GDP dropping by 0.3 in the fourth quarter, (worse than the 0.2 forecast), the French economy is in danger of slipping back into recession for the first time since 2009. Manufacturing and services meanwhile are picking up in Germany, according to the Purchasing Manager’s Index.

On the corporate from Rio Tinto posted its first ever full year loss of £1.9 billion with the new CEO Sam Walsh vowing to cut costs.

Walsh replaced his predecessor after a misjudged aluminium and coal acquisition that led to $14.4 billion in write downs and left the world’s third largest miner in the red. Amongst slashing costs, Walsh plans to spend capital more carefully and focus on shareholder value.

African Barrick Gold downgraded, Asos Plc upgraded

In broker land we see African Barrick Gold has received two downgrades (To target share price guidance) - from Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Cazenove. The moves will be in response to yesterday's trading update which disappointed investors.

Tullow Oil has meanwhile received three downgrades to the target share price held by Deutsche Bank, Nomura and Credit Suisse.